


Exactly How I Saw It

by ot5cuddles



Series: Spare Me Your Theories [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Psychic Abilities, more snapchat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-22 21:18:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ot5cuddles/pseuds/ot5cuddles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry’s still psychic, Louis is a bit less confused than before, Liam has a secret. Some might call it fate, others might blame it all on a sock.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exactly How I Saw It

**Author's Note:**

> this was mostly emily's fault because she's hella thirsty for ziam. it's just as full of cheese and fluff as the first part and was really fun to write so yeah, i hope you like it :)  
> please ignore the fact that i use uk slang yet there are references to things that would suggest this story does not take place in the uk. i've never been outside of canada and i make no sense.  
> happy reading :)

Warmth.

That’s the first thing that comes to mind when Louis becomes conscious in the morning. He doesn’t even regret the money that was inevitably spent on the double bed for his room, because where else was Harry going to sleep? 

Warm hands. Warm fingers, tracing abstract lines across Louis’ belly. Warm breath tickling his neck. A warm voice humming. Everything is so _warm._

Too warm.

“Harry, get off,” Louis whines, his voice cracking and grumbling with the remnants of sleep stuck in his throat. He tosses the blankets to the floor in a huff, trying to scoot away from the shirtless, sticky body of his boyfriend. 

Harry - who’s been awake for a while, Louis can tell - only chuckles and holds his grip, cooing when Louis proves too weak in his just-woken-up state to escape. 

It’s April now and the final semester of the year is coming to an end. It’s been five months since Louis knocked over his latte on Harry’s stuff in the library; four months since Harry told Louis about his talent, since Louis and Harry had their first date at their favourite pizza restaurant and had their first kiss. Four months since Louis decided that maybe his “stalker” was the best thing that’s ever happened to him in his life. It’s been two months since Louis bought that new mattress so that there’d be room in his bed for one more. It’s been a month and a half since Harry brought over a small bag of his stuff to keep at Louis’ flat. He still technically lives in his dorm, but he’s planning on moving in with Louis and Liam over the summer. 

Louis peeks an eye open and glances towards the window. Gaging from the amount of light in the pale grey sky, it’s probably not even 5:30 yet. He yawns and rolls over to face Harry, who still has his arms wrapped around him, and decides to just give in and try to fall back asleep. “Too hot,” he tries to protest once more, but his voice is soon clouded over and his breath slows as he descends back into sleep.

~

“Louis, where are my socks?” 

Louis pokes his head into his bedroom, where Harry is frantically making a big mess. “Socks?” 

“Yeah, socks, they go on your feet. Like my white socks, for example. I think I left them in your laundry bin.” Harry’s got half of his body hunched over said laundry bin, flinging out articles of Louis’ clothing everywhere in his search for the socks that seem to be hiding from him.

Louis groans and walks into the room, pulling on Harry’s arm. “Haz, quit it. Those clothes are in there for a reason, they’re _dirty,”_ he mutters. “As in already been worn this week and probably covered in sweat. So here,” Louis walks over to his dresser, leading Harry behind him by his arm like a child. “You can borrow a pair of mine today, until you go back to your dorm to get fresh ones.” 

Harry nods as Louis opens the top drawer and hands him a pair of socks. “Not really sure I wanna wear your socks, Lou,” he calls towards Louis’ now retreating back. “Don’t know where they’ve been or what you’ve done with them.” He chuckles good-naturedly when Louis flips him the bird on his way out of the room. 

Pulling on the socks, Harry eyes the mess on the floor. As if on cue, he hears Louis’ voice, muffled by several layers of walls. “You’d better clean all that stuff up, Harry, or I refuse to feed or water you!” Harry groans jokingly, bending to pick up all the shirts and jeans and underwear that he’s flung about the room in his mad dash for a pair of socks. 

He throws everything back into the bin and then bends once more to pick up a lone sock that doesn’t seem to have a match, or maybe it’s still in the laundry bin, he thinks. It’s a weird sock, polka-dotted, and it doesn’t look like one that Louis’ ever worn. Harry hardly has time to scrunch up his brow before he’s no longer in Louis’ bedroom, he’s somewhere different, seeing a completely scene in front of his eyes, and when he comes back it’s then that he knows that this is not Louis’ sock he’s holding.

It’s Liam’s.

~

 _“If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?”_ Louis grins as he listens to Harry sing in the shower. His voice carries softly through the door and down the hallway, just barely audible from where Louis is, on the couch, wrapped in a blanket that smells like Harry. Although the whole scene is extremely cheesy, Louis still feels a funny kind of swooping in his belly. _When did I become such a sap?_ Louis thinks to himself as he lets his eyes flutter closed and just listens to Harry’s voice through the sound of running water and the occasional thump of something (a bottle of shampoo, Louis suspects) being dropped on the floor of the tub. 

Louis thinks he must have drifted off because it only feels as if a second has passed before he opens his eyes again and Harry is padding into the living room with wet hair, lifting the blanket to slide in beside Louis.

He shuffles into the cushions to make room and Harry giggles. “Maybe we both can’t fit.” Harry’s voice is low and raspy into Louis’ ear, and Louis shivers into his warmth. Always so warm, even when he’s still half-wet from the shower. 

“Don’t care, you smell nice.” Louis snuggles into Harry, wrapping his arms around his middle and nuzzling into his neck. “And you’re warm.”

Harry tangles their legs together in an attempt to better fit the both of them on the couch. “Really now? Usually you’re complaining that I’m _too_ warm.” The way Louis groans half-heartedly at that, dismissing the comment, makes Harry’s heart jump. “Fickle,” he whispers into Louis’ hair. 

Sighing quietly, Louis rubs a palm over Harry’s belly, back and forth. “We should go to bed before we fall asleep on this fucking sofa,” he suggests. 

“Wouldn’t mind sleeping here,” Harry yawns. “Gives me an excuse to cuddle you lots.” 

Louis smacks him lightly where his hand is, pressed to Harry’s belly still. “Cheeky. Cheeky and cheesy, you are.”

At that, Harry giggles and begins singing softly, the same song he was singing in the shower. _“If I lay here,”_ he sings, _“if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?”_

“You’re such a cheesy little doofus,” Louis says pointedly. 

Harry keeps singing into Louis’ hair and although his boyfriend is such a sappy idiot, there’s still nowhere else he’d rather be. It’s times like these that remind him how less than half a year ago, he didn’t have this. He had a cold, lonely bed in a cold, lonely room. Less than half a year ago, he met a sort-of-creepy boy with glassy green eyes. A boy who knew what they’d become one day. A boy who became so much more to him.

So yeah, Louis could say that he’s lucky. 

~

It turns out that Louis and Harry do indeed fall asleep on the “fucking stupid ass sofa”, at least that’s exactly how Louis puts it when he awakes, sitting up and feeling the pain in his neck from the way he was bent around Harry all night. Harry only yawns and pulls Louis back down to rest his head on his chest. Louis tries to protest but he feels far too exhausted to fight off his very snuggly companion. 

A few minutes later, Liam emerges from his bedroom and enters the living room, eyeing the pair on the couch. “Uh, good morning?”

“Harry let us fall asleep on the bloody couch,” Louis groans out the explanation, finally breaking free from Harry’s monkey arms and standing up. “I can’t even feel my toes.”

Liam stares at them. “You two do have a bed, Harry.”

“A brand new bed that I paid good money for,” Louis adds.

Harry’s eyes are still closed and he swoops an arm up to cover them, shielding the morning light from his eyelids. “It was an accident, you know.”

Louis only scoffs and hobbles into the bathroom to find something to take for his aches and pains. When he does, he goes back through the living room, past a now snoring Harry, and into the kitchen where Liam is sitting on the counter silently, sipping on a glass of orange juice. 

There’s bags under his eyes and he looks pale, paler than usual, which is saying a lot since he and Louis spend a lot of time in the good weather playing football outside. “You okay?” Louis asks him, walking closer and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge on the way. He sits down beside Liam on the counter, twisting the cap off the water and taking a swig to down the pill he got from the bathroom. 

Liam nods but only half-heartedly, like he’s contemplating telling Louis about whatever it is that’s wrong with him. Louis can tell something is definitely wrong. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” Usually Liam is like sunshine, smiling and laughing and making really bad puns. But today he looks so different from his normal self and it has Louis a bit worried.

“It’s nothing, Lou, really.”

Louis eyes him with concern, taking in his friend’s face. It’s dropping more and more with each passing second, like he’s thinking very hard about something depressing. He knows he wants to help his friend with whatever’s bugging him, but if Liam won’t tell him, what can he do? Louis sighs before hopping down from the counter. “Alright mate, fine. But if you need to talk-”

“Yeah, okay,” Liam says with finality, jumping down as well and walking towards the hallway swiftly. 

Louis follows him with his gaze, wishing he could make his usually happy friend smile again.

Harry enters the kitchen then, apparently miraculously awake. He passes as Liam leaves, scratching his head before shaking his messy hair out. Once the two hear Liam’s bedroom door shut loudly, Harry looks to Louis with a questioning expression on his sleepy face. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Wish I knew,” Louis answers, his heart feeling heavy. ~ 

April turns into May and suddenly the world is free. The air smells so clean and the sky is blue nearly every day, besides the few days when it rains endlessly. Louis doesn’t mind those days, though. He likes cool weather more than hot. He would live in perpetual autumn if he could, and although the wind no longer has a chilly edge to it he still wears his big sweaters, humming as he opens the windows to let in the sweet-smelling breeze. 

Now that the semester’s finished and he’s got the summer off, he’s going to go back to work part-time to save up money for the school year ahead. But he’s not planning on starting again until later on in June, so until then Louis, Harry and Liam’s schedules are all pretty much clear. 

The three of them have become very close despite only being friends for a little while. Louis and Liam have been friends for a long time, since they were kids, and until Harry came into the picture the two of them living together was seamless and easy. Harry himself seemed to fit into their little picture quite nicely, and now the three friends could hardly imagine life any other way. Maybe it is a tad unnerving that Harry sometimes goes to either of them and asks about a detail of their life that he’s found out from touching their stuff too much, but it’s endearing because it’s Harry and besides, Louis for the most part has grown used to having the “psychic of the house” (as he likes to put it) around. They feel comfortable together, watching tv or just eating dinner wordlessly. In contrast, they are able to talk about anything. When any of them need help with a problem, they talk and work things out, because that’s what best friends do. 

That’s why Louis can’t understand why Liam has become so distant lately.

He hardly ever smiles, and when he does, Louis can tell it’s fake because his eyes don’t crinkle with the movement. He doesn’t speak unless spoken to and he eats next to nothing. When Harry and Louis go out, Liam refuses to join. Whatever’s wrong, Liam doesn’t seem to want to let anyone know, and Louis doesn’t want to press him too hard for fear that he’ll snap. So, Harry and Louis have resorted to talking about it in hushed tones by themselves once Liam’s shut himself into his room for the night. They’ve both noticed, how could they not? Something’s got to be done.

“He’s never usually like this.” Which is the same sentence Louis has reiterated for the millionth time about Liam. “We need to find out what’s going on.”

Harry nods in agreement, but there’s something in his eye, something Louis knows means that Harry knows something more. He can always tell. “Harry, what is it?”

He blinks slowly and lowers his chin, thinking. “Well, I saw something.”

“Like, a vision?”

“Yeah,” Harry confirms. “It was of Liam. It might have been the future, but I’m not sure.”

“Is something bad going to happen? Did it already happen?” Louis is majorly concerned now. Harry shakes his head and squints, like he’s trying to pull up the mental images of the visions he’s had of Liam. 

“No, it wasn’t bad,” he whispers.

Louis scoffs. “Well then, why do you look so worried?”

“Because nothing makes any sense,” says Harry, his voice raising a bit. “What I saw was happy, so it makes no sense why Liam would be acting like this.”

“Tell me what you saw before I go crazy,” Louis implores. Harry takes a deep breath before looking up and meeting Louis’ wide eyes. 

“I think he’s met someone.”

~

In the next few days, Louis and Harry come up with a plan to get Liam back into a good mood. Harry’d explained to Louis about what he’d seen in his vision; Liam and a guy that Harry’s never seen before, walking down the street and talking, looking very very happy as far as Harry could tell. “He was definitely into this guy,” Harry shared. “He was glowing, Lou. It was really...sweet.”

Louis had only shaken his head in disbelief. “Liam’s never...said anything about being into guys, though.”

“He hasn’t?”

“Nope. And I’ve known him for years, since we were teenagers. Why wouldn’t he tell me?”

Harry only shrugs. 

“I know Liam, and meeting someone he liked wouldn’t cause him to be sad. If anything, he’d be happier.” Louis let out a breath. “I just don’t understand.”

“Maybe he feels this way because he’s...scared?”

Louis smiles a very small, tight-lipped smile. “Maybe.”

So, for now everything was just a theory and nothing made sense. While Louis and Harry are still kind of concerned for their friend, Harry decided he would take matters into his own hands if the opportunity showed itself.

~

“It’s sort of like a street fair but not,” Louis yells to Liam, holding onto Harry’s shoulder for balance as he pulls his shoes on. “There are people selling cool junk and there’s food! It’s just a few blocks down, Harry and I are going and you should come with us.”

Liam makes an indifferent noise that sounds sort of like a “meh” and nestles further into the mess of blankets and pillows he’s stacked up on the sofa. 

“Come on, Liam,” Louis coaxes from the from door. “It’ll be fun. You need to get some fresh air.”

He shrugs and the sheet he has wrapped around his shoulders falls a bit lopsided. “I’m fine, Lou. You and Harry go; it’ll be more fun without me.” His voice sounds flat and raw like he’s spent the night crying. 

Harry looks at Louis with a mischievous expression that Louis mirrors within a second. A heartbeat later the couple are running at Liam, shouting gibberish and dog-piling on top of him on the sofa. Harry, who lands directly on Liam, grabs a hold of his flailing arms while Louis, who’s landed lower, grabs his legs. “One, two, three!” Harry shouts before the two are hefting Liam off the sofa and onto the floor. Well, Louis and Harry fall first and Liam falls on top of them, and by the end of it all three are lying in a heap of giggles and tangled blankets.

“You’d think I lived with children,” Liam says with less of a sombre tone to his voice now. “Not a couple of grown men.”

Louis rolls over to smack a loud, wet kiss to his face. “We’re children at heart, dear Liam.” 

“Indeed,” Harry agrees, locking his hands around Liam’s wrists. “Now, we will not hesitate to hold you hostage on the ground until you agree to come with us today.” Louis nods in agreement and Liam groans.

“Think good, Liam. I’ll tickle if need be,” Louis threatens, wiggling his fingertips.

Liam squeezes his eyes shut in annoyance before breathing out forcibly. “Alright, fine. I’ll go.” He gives in, struggling to break free from Harry’s iron grasp. “Geez, trying to break a bone?” Harry chuckles out a quick “sorry” before letting go and the three boys lift themselves off the ground and dust themselves off. Liam leaves to get dressed and Harry and Louis share a high five and a giggle at their impeccable team work.

Ten minutes later, and Liam is kicking pebbles as he trails along behind Louis and Harry who share quick glances every now and again, glances that spark more and more ideas as to how they can make their downtrodden friend have a good time. Obviously they can’t force him, Louis thinks, but he’s pretty sure that the idea they’ve come up with just might work. He turns and whispers into Harry’s ear and Harry just nods, breaking off from the trio and leaving the duo of Louis and Liam alone. 

Liam looks up from what must be a particularly interesting bit of gravel on the ground. “Where’s he gone?”

“Gone to find a toilet. Has to piss, I guess,” Louis lies easily, wrapping an arm around Liam’s shoulders. “What say you and me find ourselves some good old fashioned fun, then?”

Liam looks confused. “What are you even talking about?”

Louis juts his chin to prompt Liam’s attention to something coming up on their right in the middle of the street fair. “Look, is that a-”

Liam follows where Louis is looking and gulps. “No, Louis. No way.”

“Yes way.” Louis is grinning like a fool as he leads a reluctant Liam towards the giant ferris wheel that’s set up in an empty parking lot across the road. “It’ll be so fun, Liam. Haven’t been on one of those in _ages_.”

Liam only groans as he tries to escape. “There’s been something up with you lately, mate,” Louis points out, getting more than a little bit tired of this new, sad, fun-hating Liam. “I want Liam back. If forcing you to ride a ferris wheel - which is _the very definition_ of fun, by the way - is what will bring him back, then so be it.”

They make their way over to the line of people that’s protruding from the metal staircase leading up to the wheel. Louis stands, one hand firmly gripping Liam’s shirt sleeve and the other shielding his eyes from the sun as he awaits the return of Harry. They may or may not have planned this out earlier, so Louis knows that Harry shouldn’t have trouble finding them.

Minutes later, the line has moved forward so much that Louis and Liam are nearly next to ride. Liam just keeps shuffling and scuttling his feet, making tiny noises of protest every time he looks up at the huge, turning wheel. “Lou, we don’t even have tickets to ride,” he says suddenly, his eyes lighting up at the prospect of not having to go on the wheel after all. But Louis only smiles and shakes his head knowingly while pinching Liam’s cheek, earning an annoyed groan.

As Liam scans the crowd, Louis zones out for a moment and almost doesn’t notice the way Liam’s eyes widen and his cheeks begin to heat up and go pink. 

In the next moment, Harry comes running up beside them and stops dead, his face sweating and flushing from the effort. “Hey guys, almost ready to go on?” he asks, his breathing a bit laboured.

Louis ignores him, looking Liam over. “Mate, you okay?”

“It’s him,” Liam says suddenly. He’s staring into one spot in the crowd and clutching Louis’ sleeve like he’s going to fall over. Harry and Louis follow his gaze and when he sees him, Harry gasps.

“I don’t get it,” Louis says uselessly as both his companions stare off into the distance, frozen.

Harry looks sideways, first at Liam then at Louis, before whispering, “It’s the guy from the vision,” in Louis’ ear. “You know, the ‘Liam vision’.” Louis nods and squints into the crowd to try and catch a glimpse of Vision Guy.

Harry lifts a hand to point. “He’s there, the dark-haired guy in the blue plaid.”

“Oh God,” Liam murmurs brokenly beside them, completely oblivious to their conversation.

Louis follows Harry’s gesture and his eyes come to rest on a guy around their age who is standing alone against a building across the way, smoking. He looks almost unimpressed with the world around him if the expression on his face is anything to go by; his dark brow is furrowed and his lips are turned down around the cigarette. His dark hair is nothing but a tousled mess on his head, but Louis thinks it must look that way on purpose, the way it’s sticking out here and there. 

Harry coughs. “Right, so, uh, I’ll be...I’ll be back,” he says before jogging across the road and towards the guy in question, going up to him easily and seemingly jerking him out of a daydream.

“Where’s he going?” Liam asks sounding like he’s in the midst of cardiac arrest, which he may very well be. “Why’s Harry talking to Zayn?”

“You’ve...you know him?” Is all Louis says and he feels as if he’s said those words to Liam before, long ago, about a different subject entirely.

At that, Liam blushes and looks at his feet. “I - not really, no. I mean, we talked once, but -”

“Tickets, please,” the ferris wheel operator in front of them says, beckoning the boys onto the ride. 

“We actually aren’t going to-” Liam tries but Louis cuts him off as Harry, suddenly back beside them, gives him a handful of ride tickets.

“Here we go, now we’re in business.” He says as he looks up from his hand.

Louis sees Harry standing there, with the dark guy in the plaid shirt, apparently named Zayn (that Liam may or may not have a thing for) standing behind him, on his face a confused and slightly nauseated expression.

“Harry, we did _not_ plan this part,” Louis sneers through gritted teeth.

Harry smirks and shushes him. 

Liam is still standing stock still, staring at Zayn with parted lips. 

“Tickets, guys, c’mon,” the ride operator repeats.

Harry pipes up. “I’ll go on with Louis.” He grabs Louis’ arm and takes two tickets, giving them to the operator who rips them and goes to open the ferris wheel seat.

“What about Liam?” Louis calls as he and Harry walk up the steps. He turns and looks back at Liam, still on the ground and just staring at Zayn, who’s looking up at Harry questioningly. Louis thinks he sees a very faint tint of red in Zayn’s cheeks as well, but he can’t be sure if it’s from embarrassment or something else.

Harry smirks at Louis before they hear Zayn say with a voice almost quiet as a mouse, “I’ll go on with him.”

Liam almost falls over, but Harry quickly descends the steps to hand him two tickets and clap him on the back. “Have fun then, kids.”

When he returns, he and Louis sit down in the two-person ferris wheel seat as the operator buckles them in and shuts the guard over their laps. They watch wordlessly as Liam hobbles up the steps next, followed by a confused yet intrigued-looking Zayn. Liam hands the operator the tickets and gulps, his adams apple bobbing up and down nervously.

The two take the seat behind Louis and Harry, so the nosy couple have to crane their necks to watch as Liam and Zayn sit down beside each other and get buckled in themselves. “I don’t even like ferris wheels,” Liam says humorlessly and Zayn chuckles a little bit, looking down at his hands.

After a minute, Louis and Harry turn back around. Harry lets out a huff of air, looking extremely self-important. 

“How did you even...” Louis begins but trails off as he looks straight at Harry’s big, glassy eyes. “You know what, don’t even tell me, Weird Psychic Stalker Boy,” he jokes with a fond smile and a slap to Harry’s hand. “Nothing you do should surprise me by now.”

Harry only laughs, leaning in to kiss Louis as the ferris wheel begins to turn.

~

“I can’t believe you did that,” Liam says as soon as the door to the flat closes. “How did you even...where...he was...I’m...”

Louis looks up once he’s gotten his shoes off. “Alright, deep breaths now, in and out, there you go.” He leads Liam over to the sofa, Harry following, and all three boys sit down with Liam in the middle. Before anyone else has a chance to say anything, Harry pipes up in a calm, unwavering, slow voice. “I saw you and Zayn together when I was holding your sock.” 

Liam just stares at him, not really sure what’s going on. “What? My _sock_?”

Harry nods. “I can...see stuff sometimes, like visions, when I hold items. Like, the past, or the future, but mostly the present,” he clarifies.

“You mean, the whole ‘psychic’ thing is...real? I always thought you guys were joking.”

Louis laughs bitterly, throwing his head back. “Oh, my dear Liam, the joker you are.” He places a stern hand on Liam’s knee. “Our friend Harry here is as psychic as they come, the freaky bastard.” Harry looks a bit offended although he knows Louis’ only playing. He nods to confirm, nonetheless.

Liam stares at the both of them, clearly taken aback. “Okay,” he states in disbelief.

“So, just to clarify, you have met Zayn before tonight, yes?” Harry questions, tilting to look directly at Liam, who nods reluctantly, biting his lip.

“Yeah, I met him a couple weeks ago walking home from the grocery store,” he begins, and Louis settles himself in, nestling his head into Harry’s shoulder as they listen. Liam scratches the back of his neck, his face contorting to express his emotions as he recounts the story. “I kinda bumped into him, I guess. Dropped my mini wheats right on his feet,” he adds, flushing slightly and giggling at the memory, and Louis sighs fondly at Liam, because it is just _so like him_ to do something like that. “He was chill about it though, and we got to talking and then we had to turn separate ways to get home and once he was gone I realized I’d probably never see him again and-” Liam takes a deep breath to steady himself. 

“I guess that’s when ‘Sad Liam’ came out to play,” Louis fills in, eyeing him. “But Li, why didn’t you ever tell me that you were...you know...into guys?”

Liam looks down, all the way down to the floor. “Because I didn’t know I was until recently.” His neck is quickly turning red and Louis thinks he knows how he feels. “Alright, so...you saw a vision of Zayn and I because you...held my sock? How does that even _work_?”

“Must be the sock you use for wanking to thoughts of Zayn,” Louis mutters quietly with a smirk. Liam flings him a humorless expression.

Harry makes a noise of sympathy. “I know, it’s frickin’ weird, mate. But it’s how I’ve always been.” He squeezes Liam’s arm. “Guess I should’ve told you earlier.”

“It’s cool,” Liam offers with a small smile. “It feels nice to get everything out in the open.”

Harry nods in agreement and Louis jumps up from the sofa, arms up in the air as he stretches. “Alright. I’m about to order a pizza for this slumber party, kiddies,” he teases. “Pepperoni sound good?”

~

The next morning, which is a Saturday, Louis awakes to an unusually cold and empty bed. He rolls over immediately and swipes his phone off the nightstand before opening snapchat and sending Harry a snap of himself pouting with the caption: _why is my bed harry-less :(_

He lets his hand drop down to rest on his stomach and in a couple of minutes a new snapchat sends his phone vibrating his ribcage like mad. He opens it to find it’s a picture of Harry and he’s outside somewhere, his face glowing bright white in all the unforgiving sunlight. _went to buy us some foooood lou_

Louis sends a snapchat back that affirms his approval and gratitude before falling back onto the pillows to wait for Harry to get back, so that he can be kissed awake like a fairytale prince. 

When Harry gets back twenty minutes later, however, he does not kiss Louis awake, rather he jumps on the bed until the smaller boy is thrashing, half-asleep and confused, performing kung-fu that he doesn’t even know.

“Harry, you asshat,” he yells once his eyes focus on his boyfriend who is smiling like the cheshire cat. “What are you-hmmphhghh.”

Harry clamps a hand down over Louis’ mouth and brings a finger from his other hand up to his own lips. “Shhh! Guess who’s in our kitchen with Liam right now?”

Louis lifts his eyebrows in exasperation before making a noise that sounds more like “hhnngg” than any intelligible english word. 

“Alright, don’t guess,” Harry giggles. “It’s Zayn.” He lets go of Louis’ mouth then. Louis makes a disgusted face, wiping furiously at his lips. 

“Could you at least wash your hands before you insist on shoving them inside my mouth?”

“You’re missing the point here, Lou,” Harry goes on, walking over to the curtains and throwing them open. “I ran into Zayn on the way home just now, and he’s currently talking happily to Liam in our kitchen. Do you know what this means?”

“No, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”

“It means that I’m actually Cupid.” Harry smirks proudly.

Louis looks offended. “Hey, It was my plan, too! I helped last night!”

“Okay. I’m Cupid and you’re Cupid’s little assistant,” Harry compromises, ruffling Louis’ hair fondly. “Oh, and look what I have.” Louis arches an eyebrow questioningly as Harry searches in his pocket before pulling out a lighter and showing it to Louis.

“This is Zayn’s lighter.”

Louis screws his nose up. “Why do you have Zayn’s lighter?”

“I borrowed it last night. How do you think I got him to follow me over to you guys at the ferris wheel?” Harry says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Louis shrugs. 

“But you don’t even smoke.”

“I know. I asked to use his lighter and then...I kinda just ran.”

Louis shakes his head fondly, a small smirk playing on his lips. “You really are quite the character, Harry Styles.”

“And I’m yours, isn’t that wonderful?” Harry says loudly, jumping up and pretty much tackling Louis into the bed before slopping a kiss to his cheek.

“Get off me,” Louis instructs but Harry knows he doesn’t really mean it. His voice was far too quiet and his eyes are soft, crinkling with his smile. 

Harry gets as close as he can to Louis’ face before muttering, “Make me.” They’re about to kiss when suddenly a crashing noise sounds out from somewhere in the flat.

When Harry and Louis run into the kitchen, Louis still in his pyjamas, Liam is on the ground picking up the pieces of a shattered plate and Zayn is behind him, muttering softly. 

“What happened?” Harry asks, kneeling to pick up a shard of jagged ceramic. 

Liam looks up, first at Zayn, to whom he gives a small smile, and then to Harry. “I - I dropped this plate. It’s not a big deal, really.”

“Is this my cow plate?” Louis breaks in, his eyes wide as he stares at the shattered mess in horror. “My _favourite_ plate?”

Harry chuckles. “A cow plate, Lou? _Really_?”

Louis ignores him and instead bends to help Liam clean up. “I loved this plate,” he sniffs, holding one broken piece up to his heart. “Been with me for years.”

“I’m sorry, Lou. It was just a dumb accident.”

Zayn still hasn’t said anything. He’s just standing there with his hands in his pockets looking slightly uncomfortable with the whole situation. Harry smirks then. “Liam, I got this. It’s alright.”

Liam looks a bit guilty but he nods anyway, standing up. “Uh, if you say so, Harry. Zayn and I were just gunna go-”

“Go out for a...lunch...thing,” Zayn finishes, looking over to Liam who smiles nervously.

“Lunch thing?” Louis interjects once more, cradling a few pieces of his beloved cow plate in his arms. 

Harry nods, standing and walking around Liam and Zayn to dump the ceramic into the garbage. “Yeah, so if they’re going for lunch, I suppose that means we have the flat to ourselves for a bit today,” he says, waggling his eyebrows.

“Harry, you goof.” Louis rolls his eyes at Harry while he reluctantly drops the remnants of his plate in the garbage bin.

After a while, when the mess in the kitchen is cleaned up and Zayn and Liam are preparing to leave for their “lunch thing”, Louis approaches Liam cautiously. “What even happened to cause you to break that plate?”

Liam looks a bit faint and he laughs to cover up his own nervousness. “I - well, I...I was startled, because, you see,” he stutters out, fumbling over his words. “Zayn - he asked me out.”

Louis smiles wide at his friend, clapping him once on the shoulder. “Right, _lunch thing,_ ” is all he says before walking into the living room where Harry is sitting on the couch.

The front door closes soon after, signaling the departure of Liam and Zayn. Harry looks to Louis then, who has taken the seat beside him on the couch, and he holds up Zayn’s lighter in his hand. 

“Wanna have some fun?”

Normal people might have fun with a lighter by setting things on fire or something like that, Louis thinks. However, Louis has come to terms with the fact that he and Harry are no longer classified as normal people.

Instead, the kind of “fun” they have with the lighter involves using it (along with Harry’s psychic abilities) to snoop into Zayn’s life. Harry clutches the thing loosely in the fingers of his big hands, Louis watching on in awe as Harry’s eyes go cloudy and he disappears for the slightest of moments before returning, eyes glassy and wide and smile even wider.

They learn all kinds of things about Zayn. They learn that he lives in a flat just a few blocks over, that he isn’t in school right now but he works in a bookshop nearby, which to Louis seems a bit too tame of an occupation but knowing Liam, he’ll probably love that. They find out that he has a roommate who, if the visions are anything to go by, seems far too rambunctious and lively for Zayn’s innocuous lifestyle. Harry only sees him quickly, the blond boy flitting past Zayn in one vision, but even then he can tell he’d be a fun person to be around. 

“That’s so weird,” Louis says breathily once Harry’s finished telling him about everything he saw. Harry snuggles into Louis’ side, resting his head on his shoulder. 

“What’s weird? Zayn? Or the fact that Zayn doesn’t seem to wear anything other than that plaid shirt?” Harry chuckles at himself and Louis shakes his head.

“No, I meant, just...you.”

Harry quirks an eyebrow. “I’m weird?”

“In a good way,” Louis assures, nodding.

“Oh, okay.” Harry smiles lazily and closes his eyes. “Now,” he says after a silent moment of just listening to Louis’ breathing. “Back to the whole 'having the place to ourselves' thing...” He leans in with the intentions of capturing Louis’ lips with his own.

“You are the single cheesiest person I have ever met,” Louis groans fondly before Harry kisses him quickly, giggling, pulling him by his waist and dragging him down onto the sofa.

~

The weeks go by, one by one, and soon it’s nearing July. Harry has officially moved in with Louis and Liam. Louis works a few days a week at his old part-time job. The days are hot and the nights are uncomfortably warm, and sleeping next to Harry every evening is even worse in the summer months than in the winter, Louis thinks. However, no matter how much he pretends to push Harry away, the two only become closer. Because yeah, Louis spent the summer of the year before sleeping all by himself in a nice, cool bed, but he also remembers how sad it was to be alone like that, to lay awake at 3am, reaching his hands out across the lonely bed sheets with nothing but the sound of his own steady breath to fall asleep to.

He doesn’t want to go back to that. So tolerating Harry’s extreme body heat in exchange for just knowing that he has someone there for him that he really, really, _really_ likes seems to be a pretty fair deal.

As for Liam, he’s hardly ever at home with Louis and Harry anymore. He spends most of his free time with Zayn which is no surprise to any of them. The two have been stuck like glue for the most part ever since the day that Liam broke Louis’ cow plate, or, as Louis likes to put it, “the day that the world ended”. Liam promised he’d buy him a new one because that’s just how Liam is; he feels guilty very easily and only wants everyone to be happy. 

His mood has picked up since he and Zayn started spending time together, obviously, and now Louis can hardly hold in his retching when the two are together. “It’s so cute it’s disgusting,” he told them one day as he pretended to gag himself. 

“No worse than you and Harry,” Liam had argued, punching Louis softly in the arm.

Zayn, it seems, has been able to fit seamlessly into their little circle. Although he’s quiet he brings an aura of calm into the group, occasionally popping into conversations and giving a word or two of advice. Harry adores him; think’s he’s the smartest person to ever walk the planet. “Must be because you read so many books,” he’d blurted out one day, to which Zayn had only chuckled and nodded, sharing that if anything, he’s always wanted to be an english teacher. Liam’s eyes had lit up at that, gazing at Zayn with a fondness that _really_ had Louis gagging into his hand.

So yeah, it’s July and Louis knows two great people that he didn’t at this time last year, and he thinks that he’s never been happier, or felt more like he belonged in his life.

~

When August comes, it’s no surprise when Harry walks into the kitchen to see Zayn backing Liam up into the counter and furiously biting a trail of hickeys onto his neck. He only chuckles and turns around on his heel to report back to Louis.

When he tells him, Louis smiles and raises his nose into the air. “Ah, can you smell that? That’s the smell of love.”

Harry smirks and leans in slowly, so close that his nose is brushing against Louis’. “Yeah, I smell it,” he murmurs lowly, eyes flitting down to catch the way that Louis’ cheeks heat up, the way the blood spreads under his skin to colour his face pink. He watches as the light catches in Louis’ eyes so that they almost look transparent, like a window on a sunny day. He’s just so _beautiful_ is the thing, and Harry finds that he has to pinch himself daily when he wakes up next to Louis, just to remind himself that he isn’t dreaming. 

Liam plays dumb for a couple weeks before Harry and Louis’ hinting becomes too much and he finally snaps on day, confessing that yeah, he and Zayn are together. Louis gives him a high-five and Harry does a little jig in the middle of the living room. One day in late August, Liam proposes that all four of them go out to dinner for his birthday that’s coming up. A new semester of school is starting up again soon and they’re all dreading the loss of time to be spent together that they’ve grown accustomed to over the summer. Their lives are just so _comfortable_ is the thing, and maybe Louis is a little bit scared to get _too_ comfortable since everything may very well come crashing down around him at any time. It’s something that he worries about constantly, because something this perfect usually doesn’t last long for him.

But then he’ll look at Harry and realize that yeah, maybe all of this seems a bit too good to be true, but it’s happening and it’s happening to him. He’s got Liam too, who’s been his friend for years and one of the only people who have been there for as long as he can remember, and is _still_ there. He doesn’t know what he’d do without him, to be honest. 

“We’re going out for dinner now, Lou, you coming?” Liam says then, snapping Louis out of his day dream. Louis nods and follows the other three guys to the door of the flat, quietly thanking whoever is up there in the sky for letting him have such great friends. 

That evening they’re all walking down the sidewalk towards the restaurant where they’ve decided to eat, some Italian or Mexican or Chinese place, Louis can’t remember. They all must look quite ridiculous, really, two couples walking down the street, both duos holding hands as if they’re going to fly away. 

Coming up on the sidewalk is a guy, sitting with his back against the adjacent building and a guitar in his lap. He’s strumming on it and from this far away the music can just barely be heard. Louis smiles as he watches the guy, his fingers dancing over the guitar strings, his light hair turning golden as it’s haloed by the evening sunlight from low in the sky.

As they get closer, Zayn breaks off from Liam’s grasp to approach the guy. Harry’s face lights up as they all stop and Zayn pulls a coin out of his pocket to toss into the guitar case that’s perched open beside the blonde guy on the ground.

The guy looks up then and makes a face. “Oh, wow, thanks,” he intones sarcastically. At that, Zayn grins and turns to the others. 

“Guys, this is my roommate Niall.”

Harry leans into Louis’ ear. “From the vision I saw.” Louis nods, smiling.

Niall stands to shake hands with Harry first and then Louis, reiterating his name every time and yeah, Harry was right about this guy being lively and vibrant and full of energy because he hasn’t stopped smiling this whole time and his mouth is moving at the speed of light, it seems. He shakes Louis’ hand firmly for a full twenty seconds. “You must be Liam’s friends that Zayn hasn’t shut up about for the past month and a half,” he chuckles, and it’s then that Louis catches the Irish accent that floats around his words. Louis smiles brightly and nods and Niall is _still_ shaking his hand. “So, lads,” he says, finally letting go and turning around to put his guitar away in the case, shutting it. “Where are we off to?”

And it’s that easy for Niall to join their little group, and he does so happily. He goes to dinner with them that night and Louis finds that Niall never runs out of things to say when there’s a lull in conversation. He _should_ feel like a bit of a fifth wheel to them, Louis thinks, but he just doesn’t. It’s just natural for the five of them like this, laughing and talking and perhaps drinking a bit too much. Afterwards they head off to Zayn and Niall’s place and after drinking and laughing and talking more, Zayn puts a movie in but all five of them fall asleep at their places on the couch or the floor (or in Niall’s case, laying across the coffee table). When they wake up in the morning, groggy and headachey and sore, it still feels so _comfortable_ , as if they’ve all been best friends for years.

~

The last few weeks of summer fly by in a blur, and Louis can’t help but feel like he’s a teenager again, savouring the long nights and the days off that summer has to offer. He didn’t even feel this way when he actually _was_ a teenager, probably because he didn’t really have many people to spend his time with. He didn’t ever realize how lonely he was back then until he was standing in his flat at 7am, watching fondly as his four new found friends slept soundly on the floor of the living room, drool coming out of their mouths. His eyes linger over Harry, all messy brown hair and lips parted in sleep and long, gangly limbs half tangled in a sheet. Louis smiles softly, afraid that if he grins any bigger his face will crack in half. His gaze then falls over Zayn and Liam who are slotted together peacefully, looking as if a bomb could go off and they’d remain this way, blissfully unaware of the world. And then there’s Niall, who likes to sleep in very awkward positions. This time he’s curled up around a couch cushion and sucking his thumb, at which Louis giggles silently as he’s sliding back under the blanket with Harry, tracing his lips gently with a trembling finger before falling into sleep beside him once more.

Louis is sitting on the couch one day, scrolling through the channels on t.v, huffing because he’s home all by himself and bored as hell. Liam and Zayn have gone out to eat dinner and go browse at the bookshop, Niall is playing some random gig at a pub somewhere a few blocks over, and Harry’s been gone all day doing God knows what. 

Louis turns in his seat to look intently at a pillow laying beside him on the sofa cushion. “I’m bored,” he speaks to the pillow as if it’s sentient, as if it will answer back. “Entertain me, pillow.”

The pillow does nothing. Louis sighs deeply. “I don’t know what I was expecting,” he grumbles to himself before turning back to the t.v. 

A moment later his eyes are drooping closed with the pure exhaustion of doing nothing when his phone vibrates on the coffee table before him. Louis immediately jolts and sits forward to grab it. He unlocks it and a fond smile plays itself across his lips as he reads the familiar notification that’s displaying itself on his screen:

_New snap from greeneyedmonster!_

The snap is just a little bit weird and it gives Louis a strange sense of deja vu as he looks at it for the designated 9 seconds that he can. It’s a picture of the door to the flat with the caption _come open up,_ almost exactly like that time, nearly a year ago when Harry was still just his snapchat stalker. 

Grinning, Louis stands up and walks over to the door, opening it swiftly, not really sure what he’s supposed to be expecting. But, just like last time, there’s absolutely no one to be seen in the hallway. Almost from reflex, Louis looks down to the ground and his smile gets wider as his eyes train onto the small styrofoam take out box that’s sitting there, just like last time. He doesn’t go back into the flat to open it, though, so he stands there in the hallway as he picks it up and opens the top slowly. 

And, just like last time, (not really to Louis’ surprise) sitting in that take out box are his favourite blueberry pancakes. Except there’s a tiny difference from last time. There’s a little paper card taped to the inside of the lid, hanging just above the pancakes that also reads _open me_.

He removes the card from the lid and opens it in one hand while balancing the pancakes in the other. His eyes begin to prickle a bit as he reads the huge letters scrawled across the card in Harry’s messy writing, the letters that spell out the sentence, _Hey, so I kind of love you._

Louis heart beats hard in his ribcage as he just stares at the words, reading them over and over again before making a broken noise in the back of his throat, almost like a tiny whimper. Maybe he’s being a tad dramatic but he just can’t help it. 

Because yeah, maybe Louis already _knew_ that Harry loved him, but Harry’s never explicitly _told_ Louis before. 

Then, out of nowhere, Louis catches Harry walking down the hall towards him, a huge smile spread across his face, his dimples prominent and deep in the harsh artificial lighting. As he gets closer, Louis gingerly places the take out box back down the ground and walks silently towards Harry, his cheeks growing hot as their eyes make immediate contact.

Harry’s the first to speak as they stop in front of each other. “Hey.”

Louis’ eyes crinkle with his smile. “Hey. I, uh, got your snapchat.”

“Did you,” Harry says, but it’s not really a question. 

Louis nods, still just staring at Harry’s eyes. “Yeah.”

“Did you get the pancakes?” Harry asks this time, even though he already knows the answer.

“Yeah, I did.”

Harry smile seems to be growing wider. “Did you - did you, you know, read the card?”

Louis nods again. “I did.”

And then Harry is wrapping his arms around Louis tightly, pulling him flush against his body where they stand in the hallway. All of Louis’ breath rushes out of him at once and his blood is pumping wildly. His first instinct is to bury his nose into Harry’s neck but before he can, Harry places a finger under Louis’ chin and lifts his face to meet his own.  
“It’s true, you know,” he whispers, the words tickling Louis’ nose and also his tummy. Harry leans in then and kisses him softly, so softly that Louis thinks he may very well turn into a pile of mush right there in the middle of the hallway. 

When they break apart, Louis finally rests his head against Harry’s chest as they just hold each other, rocking back and forth slightly. Louis sniffs as his tummy tightens up and swoops just thinking of the words he’s about to say. 

“Haz?”

“Hmm?”

“I kind of love you too.”

~

The semester starts up and before they know it, it’s nearing autumn. The air is getting colder and there’s something about the way it smells outside that makes Louis think of that day in the library last winter, about meeting Harry and his life changing more than he ever thought it would. He still can’t believe how much happier he’s become in the past year, with the people he’s met and the way they’ve molded into his life effortlessly; finally feeling that he’s somewhere that he belongs. 

As for Harry, he’s not going to tell anyone, at least not yet, about the things he’s seen. Ever since he was very young he’s been having visions of himself, visions that show him laughing with four other people who, to him, seemed like people who would one day be his best friends. For now he keeps them hidden in his own mind, smiling whenever one of his visions from long ago comes true, feeling at ease when he sees that his life is finally becoming what he’s been waiting for it to be.

It’s a good feeling.

“Oh no, Niall’s farting!” Liam calls one night that autumn, as the five of them are walking back to Harry, Louis and Liam’s after seeing a movie. 

Niall laughs maniacally and chases after Liam, who yelps and ducks his head, covering it with his arms as Niall catches up to him and attempts to ruffle his hair up. Zayn watches on fondly with a small smile on his face as he walks beside Louis and Harry, who are chatting quietly about the movie and arguing about which actor had the best ass.

In the next few minutes they’ve reached Louis’ building and the group stops walking.

Liam hugs Zayn and mutters quietly, in what Harry calls his ‘Zayn Voice’. “See you later, yeah?” Zayn nods and they break apart. He walks over to Niall, who shouts over to Harry and Louis. “See you guys tomorrow or something, I might surprise you and come for dinner,” he shouts cheekily, raising a hand to wave at them.

So they all say their goodbyes and they joke and laugh a bit more, and just before Louis, Harry and Liam are about to go into their building and Zayn and Niall are preparing to head off down the sidewalk, Louis stops in his tracks and calls after them. “Wait!”

Zayn and Niall turn around questioningly.

“Come back,” Louis calls, waving them over. He ushers Liam and Harry closer to him as well, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders. As Zayn and Niall return, Louis smirks. “I propose a group hug.” Harry smiles widely at that, throwing his arms around Louis’ waist. 

“I second that.”

Everyone else merely looks at each other for a moment before all hell breaks loose.

They’re hugging and laughing and all talking at once, and it would be uncomfortable if it weren’t for the fact that all five of them are just really, _really_ happy. Suddenly, Harry’s holding Niall in a headlock in one arm and squeezing Louis with the other; Zayn and Liam have their arms around one another’s waists and they’re giggling fondly. Niall, somehow, stretches to wrap his arms around everyone so that they’re all pressed together, their collective breath coming out in a fog around them.

“Everything’s getting awfully mushy,” comes Niall’s voice from where his face is buried somewhere in Harry’s armpit. “Better let go before I lose my manhood completely.”

Laughter rings out as everyone breaks apart. Louis knees Niall playfully in the groin and then chortles as if it’s the funniest thing he’s ever done. Harry tsks at Louis and grabs him around the waist as Niall hobbles beside them, doubled over but still laughing at nothing in particular. Lifting Louis up off the ground some, Harry spins, getting a giggle out of him before setting him down again, breathless, and pecking him softly on the lips.

“You guys really are disgusting,” Liam says, voice dripping with nothing but fondness. Louis blushes while Harry bats his eyelashes. 

“Oh, Liam, come here so I can love you,” Harry sniggers and Zayn stands back giggling as Harry attacks Liam, jumping on his back for an impromptu piggy back ride.

So yeah, as Louis watches his new-found group of misfits, he finally feels a strange sense of belonging, as if he never truly knew how togetherness like this felt until now. Maybe he is standing outside in the middle of October at 2am making way too much noise, but the point is that he’s not alone. He’s felt alone while surrounded by countless other people before, but now, with these four guys, he doesn’t feel that way. 

And it’s nice.

Everyone’s calmed down a bit now, and Harry jumps down from Liam’s back. “I suppose we should all be heading home,” he suggests, grabbing for Louis’ hand. “Some of us do have classes in the morning.”

Zayn merely rolls his eyes good naturedly at that, holding on to Niall’s collar and pulling. “Yeah, I guess we should go.”

They all say goodbye once again before this time, it’s Harry who beckons Zayn and Niall to stay for a moment longer.

He walks over to Zayn and takes his hands, holding them tight, looking at him seriously. “Gotta tell you something,” Harry says seriously to an intently listening Zayn. “Whatever you do, don’t ever put a blonde streak in your hair, unless you want Louis to call you ‘Cinnabon’ for a month.”

At that, the five of them laugh in unison, exactly how Harry saw it long ago.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading :-)
> 
> p.s emily i cannot believe i actually put the wanking sock line in this i just love you too much


End file.
